35 injured in clashes between protestors, police in Srinagar

Srinagar: Defying prohibitory orders, hundreds of people on Saturday took part in the funeral of the
17-year-old youth, who was killed during a clash between
demonstrators and police, even as skirmishes between
protesters and police left 35 persons, including 15 policemen,
injured across the city.

As the body of Tufail Ahmad Mattoo was handed over to the
next of kins by police today for last rites, people - men,
women and children - without caring for prohibitory orders and
presence of police and paramilitary personnel, came out of
their houses and marched towards the residence of Mattoos in
Saidkadal.

Body of the youth was taken in a procession to Jamia
Masjid where chairman of moderate faction of Hurriyat
Conference Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, JKLF chairman Mohammad Yaseen
Malik, vice-chairman of rival faction of JKLF Javid Ahmad Mir
and other Hurriyat leaders including Syed Saleem Geelani
participated in "Nimaz-e-Jinazzah` (Prayer before burial) of
Tufail.

Later, the body of the 12th class student was laid to
rest at martyrs graveyard in Eidgah, a vast ground in old
city, where a large gathering had assembled from different
parts of the city to participate in the funeral with no
untoward incident, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman said the body of the deceased youth was
handed over to the legal heirs after a team of doctors
constituted by the District Magistrate conducted postmortem to
ascertain the actual cause of death of the youth.

"As the mourners insisted on burying the body at Eidgah,
the route clearance was facilitated as a result of which the
mourners offered Nimaz-e-Jinazah at Jamia Masjid and later
buried the body at Eidgah. Police and CRPF showed tremendous
restraint as a result of which the entire process passed off,
by and large, peacefully", the spokesman said.